Add MARC export

[aurimasv]

I don't see a reason why we shouldn't offer this.

Re https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/38956/export-of-zotero-citation-to-marc-format-for-import-into-koha-lms

[zuphilip]

I will try to come up with a preliminary MARC21 XML export translator...

[aurimasv]

Ideally, I would say that we should add export to MARC (to the same translator using the same mappings to make sure we import what we export and vice-versa) and then add the MARC XML wrapper around it. That's obviously a lot of work though and would probably warrant a complete rewrite of the MARC translator (but that's not necessarily a bad thing, since we have at least one pull request that would benefit from a more modular MARC translator)

[zuphilip]

I agree with you in a "ideal setting". There might be some obstacles (or should we say challenges;-) in practise. First, I am not sure how a both-direction mapping can be represented at all (there might be clean-up functions, alternatives, dependencies in both directions). Second, I don't think I would technically manage that easily or at all. Moreover, the import translator tries to work for different MARC-dialects, where one export translator can only support one dialect.

I try to come up with a fast prototype. Here is the first version of a preliminary MARC21 XML export translator: https://github.com/zuphilip/translators/blob/marc21-export/MARC21XML.js Maybe, you can have a look at it. My overall goal was to try to export (at least for books) MARC records as nice as possible.

How should we proceed from here? Is a pull request for discussion helpful? Do you see a (coding) strategy how to "merge" import and export for MARC21?

[aurimasv]

I don't have time right now to look at this, but take a look at RIS for import/export from the same mapping.

[ztajoli]

I see the MARC21 XML export from https://github.com/zuphilip/translators/blob/marc21-export/MARC21XML.js.

My suggestion is to change line 370.
From
mapProperty(currentFieldNode, "subfield", {"code" : "h"} , descriptionArray.join(', ') );
to
mapProperty(currentFieldNode, "subfield", {"code" : "g"} , descriptionArray.join(', ') );

In MARC21 is better to insert volume, issue, pages of an article into 773 $g instead of 773 $h.
See the examples in official standard page:
https://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd773.html

The best will be to create ALSO 773 $q but it is a complex task

[zuphilip]

@ztajoli I bundled this export translator with some other library related translators into a new repo: https://github.com/UB-Mannheim/zotkat . These translators are working but should been seen as preliminary. Can you copy your note to a new issue there?

[adam3smith]

@AbeJellinek @dstillman -- thoughts on including MARC export? If we do want to we can adopt zuphilip's translator easily. If we don't we can close this.

[stweil]

Are there other options how data can be transferred from Zotero to an integrated library system or to a discovery system? Or is it desired to revive this issue?

I have a Zotero library with several thousand books that should be presented on the Internet, ideally with the usual search options of a library catalog.